Journal of Iranian Cultural Research
Year:2012 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (17)|Papers Count:9

The main aim of this paper is to suggest a typology of virtual deviances and also a comparative analysis of international policies concerning cyber abnormalities; and finally suggesting an applicable model for future planning. In fact with the promotion of ITC, a new kind of space for human life is created which is termed second space or second world. These technologies provided a mediated simultaneity. This space generates many deviances and abnormalities, in addition to many other advantages. Therefore, pathologically analyzing these abnormalities would be useful considering the distinctive logic and ontology of cyber space. This paper conceptualizes prominent cyber deviances, under dual spacialization paradigm, and categorizes the main policies adopted in some pioneer countries in this issue. The findings show that social and cultural policies and programs of these countries can be divided into two major kinds of affirmative and negative forms. Negative policies include elimination, control and surveillance; and affirmative policies consist of production and management of contents of cyberspace, digitalization of analogue data and providing access to information and content through the internet.

The present study examines the relationship between using Internet social networks and some of the life style’s indices. The study relies on the assumption that the Internet and virtual space, particularly online social networks, have remarkably attracted young people nowadays so far as such networks have filled most of the youths’ leisure times. In the context of globalization and the advent of new communication technologies, a virtual space has emerged interacting with the real one. To measure the relationship between these two spaces, i.e. the time people allocate to the Internet and other cultural implications of being a member of social networks, the present research employs online survey and online questionnaire administration to collect data from the active users of Iranian Social Network, i.e. Cloob.com. The findings suggest that the Internet and online social networks fill most of the youths’ leisure time; people become the member of such networks with different goals of which amusement is the most significant. Furthermore, the networks membership would partially affect cultural symbols related to individuals’ everyday life including dressing and daily talks. Online social networks have also brought about changes in friend-making and marriage style which are all conclusively examined in chapter four (data analysis). The study also addresses the contents of private or group messages. To examine the contents of private messages, the research employs questionnaires and to depict a precise picture of group messages, it uses content analysis method to examine the content of all discussed issues by young people in the network. The results of the content analysis reveal that private and group messages communicated in the Iranian largest online social network, i.e. Cloob.com, have different contents indicating a change in people’s life style.

Formerly most sociologists of science and technology did little to research in the formal literature of the Sociology of Culture and may even were resistant to cultural analysis. The sociologists of culture have also written little analysis on the process of knowledge and technology production. This is contrary to the basic charactersitic of the new sociology of knowledge and science that is emphasis on culture and cultural analysis in science and technology studies. In this article, we trace and analyze how sociologists of science and technology have performed cultural analysis. More recent moves to extend studies of science and technology “outward” beyond formal scientific settings have created new possibilities for the sociology of culture. They have also attracted more attention to the place of culture in knowledge and technology studies. Of these recent attempts are the studies on materialistic culture, scientific citizenship, macro- epistemics (culture in knowledge society), and finally civic epistemologies.

The purpose of this research was to determine the share of gender, economic status, being native or non-native, and duration of using SMS in predicting the rate of the SMS received from the same sex and opposite sex friends among Isfahan University students. For sampling, 50 undergraduate students at Isfahan University were selected based on the stratified random sampling method. For assessing the rate of SMS received and the factors contributing to this rate, a researcher-made questionnaire was employed. Descriptive statistics and stepwise regression were used for data analysis. The findings of stepwise regression indicated that economic status can significantly predict the rate of the SMS received from the same sex friends among college students (P=0.00); however, adding gender, being native or non-native, and the duration of using SMS did not add to the significant value in predicting the power of the rate of the SMS received from same-sex friends. The results of stepwise regression also showed that gender can significantly predict the rate of SMS received from opposite-sex friends among college students (P=0.00); but adding each one of economy status, being native or non-native, and the duration of using SMS variables could not increase significantly the predicting power of the rate of the SMS received from opposite-sex friends.

The present study aimed to study and evaluate the Government decisions in the field of cinema within the years 1989 to 2009 in Iran. The cabinet approvals in these years within their titles or texts the keywords related to cinema were used (106 approvals) have shaped the research domain. The method of this research was content analysis and the instrument used was a checklist with r=0.91 using Scott formula. The content analysis checklist was constructed based on the model which classified arts policies into four types namely: facilitator, patron, architect and engineer. The findings revealed that in the investigated twenty-year process, the various states having come in 4-year intervals have been different in using the types of arts policies. The state in the first and second presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani used the facilitator and engineer types; in the first presidency of Mohammad Khatami used the patron and architect types, in his second presidency the architect type; and finally in the first presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the architect and engineer types more than the other types. Although there has been a difference between the types of arts policy in the cinema approvals in different periods of presidency, the architect and engineer types of arts policies have been used more than the facilitator and patron types.

In this paper we tried to depict the effect of computer-mediated communication on attitude change in intercultural interpersonal communications. The researchers arranged 20 virtual informal deep interviews with non-Iranian interviewees who have been in contact with the researchers via the internet during the last 10 years. Despite the fact that their perceptions about Iranians years ago were very schematic in the first encounters with the researchers, the researchers recognized these attitudes had changed gradually during these years. Observing such a change in the daily communications, the researchers decided to share this ethno-methodological knowledge with their intellectual colleagues; so this paper started to be written systematically. First, in reference to Arbib, Conklin, and Hill, the researcher tried to discover the mechanisms of schema formation about Iranians in the minds of these interviewees. The researchers also classified the schematic perceptions- what Wood defines as Personal Constructs, Prototypes, Stereotypes, and Scripts- about Iranians. Second, an attempt was made to find out why these interviewees, with those pre-maintained negative attitudes about Iranians, became interested to interact with an Iranian on the internet. Next, they have been asked about their mental experiences of facing an Iranian, whose characteristics are in contrast to the prejudice they had maintained about Iranians. Finally, Affective-Cognitive Consistency Theory was used by Rosenberg and Abelson to explain how those stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes about Iranians have changed in the context of emotional give-and-takes in friendships.

The changes of women veil in Iran after the Islamic Revolution and examining its cultural, social, political and economic aspects and outcomes is very important and has turned into a hot issue for cultural studies on veil in the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Chador” as an outstanding  type of women veil in Iran has been affected by general trends of these changes and considerable parts of public culture and media atmosphere of Iran specially IRIB and cinema have represented these recent transformations. Although a great part of Iranian women actions on Chador take place in its traditional and classical form, considering these kinds of changes in the sign and function of Chador for some parts of social body and media representations of this veil makes this phenomenon very important and sensitive for cultural studies of dress and veil in Iran. This article has studied some degrees of semiotic, functional and semantic changes of chador hijab in IRIB series. Through 4 focus group interviews with 15 academic and seminarian women dressing traditional and classical Chador, this study analyzed the recent IRIB constructions of “Chador dressing women and girls” which describes the wide functional and semantic transformations of Chador representation in IRIB dramatic programs. Thus some media and cultural malfunctions are observed in these programs and Chador hijab has degraded to an attractive and flashy “cape”.